Sebastian Stokes has joined strategic communications agency Aurora as its new director. Stokes has run SHED Communications for five years, a communications consultancy which specialises in consumer health and patient engagement in the UK and globally. Commenting on his new appointment at Aurora, Stokes said: “I’m incredibly excited to be joining the Aurora team, particularly as their ambition really stands out in the industry. The health space has evolved rapidly in the past year for obvious reasons and Aurora is exceptionally well positioned to deliver insightful, data-driven and creative communications – exactly where I want to add value for client organisations.”

Wilmington Healthcare has appointed Tina White as a consultant. White has spent over 30 years in the NHS working across a range of clinical and managerial roles, having formerly worked as a nurse. She also previously served as programme director of Frimley Integrated Care System (ICS), where she developed its original sustainability and transformation plan in 2016. During the pandemic, she also established a system-wide workforce ‘bureau’ to manage operational pressures, a model which has since been taken up by NHS England as a best practice exemplar. In her new role, she will use her experience to give industry clients a practical perspective on the best ways to negotiate the new NHS landscape.

Healthcare market shaping consultancy Triducive has welcomed two new starters to its team – Bethan James and Thomas Scoble. James joins as associate operations lead, having recently graduated with a first class honours degree from the University of Portsmouth. In her new role, she will aim to provide support to improve business operations and systems to enhance the client experience. James commented: “I look forward to supporting and improving activities that enable Triducive to excel at delivering high-impact communications and market shaping programmes to a growing base of global clients” Meanwhile, Scoble, an experienced medical writer, will work on sourcing, developing and writing content for communications that have a practical and dynamic application. In addition, Scoble is also an experienced scientific proofreader and editor, following an academic background with an applied bioscience master’s degree.

Bristol Myers Squibb has appointed Scott Cooke as general manager, UK & Ireland. Cooke has held key roles across BMS over the past 20 years and brings extensive leadership experience to the UK & Ireland company. Most recently, he was general manager across a cluster of nine countries spanning Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey, Israel and India. He has also served as general manager of the Benelux cluster and has prior experience in the UK & Ireland as the oncology business unit director. In his new appointment, Cooke has also been elected to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) board of management, and will be vice-chair of the American Pharmaceutical Group.

Alexander Schacht has joined UK-based contract research organisation (CRO) Veramed as its executive VP of launch and commercialisation data sciences, taking the lead of the company’s new launch and commercialisation business unit. Schacht joins Veramed from UCB, where he held a statistical sciences leadership role, where he had responsibility for launch and commercialisation projects. He has over 20 years of healthcare research and industry experience, and specialises in helping pharma and biotech companies successfully launch and commercialise new treatments, with a focus on communications and data-driven decision making. At Veramed, he will lead and develop a global team of experts to grow the new business unit, which will focus on servicing biopharmaceutical companies at both a local and global level. Schacht also holds a PhD in biostatistics and is an active member of Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry (PSI).

Luigi ‘Gino’ Martini has been appointed as managing director at the University of Birmingham’s new Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA). Martini joins PHTA from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), where he worked in the role of chief scientist for over three years. He has extensive experience in oncology, rare and infectious disease as well as drug development. Martini also brings expertise in policy development and external advocacy to the role. He began his career working in senior scientist roles at Scherer Drug Delivery Systems and SmithKline Beecham before joining GlaxoSmithKline. Formerly, Martini was professor of Pharmaceutical Innovation at King’s College London.

F2G – a biopharma company focused on rare life-threatening fungal diseases – has announced the appointment of Camilla Soenderby as a non-executive director to its board of directors. Soenderby is a veteran biopharma executive with 20 years of international leadership experience from senior strategic and operating roles, spanning C-level, global, regional and country level. Most recently, she was chief patient value & product strategy officer at Takeda, where she lead the establishment of a global function that comprised global commercial strategy, global market access and pricing, global commercial excellence and global patient advocacy. Prior to its acquisition by Takeda, Soenderby also served as SVP, head of global product strategy for Shire, having previously held positions of increasing responsibility at Roche, Abbott (now AbbVie) and Schering Plough. She began her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co.